A Hero's Journey Through Science Fiction

“Keep Moving! Nothing to See Here!”

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As a Mormon I should know better than to snap my wig and go off on someone else’s faith–or lack of it. That said, I am still mystified by the intense hatred that hipsters imbedded in the media-entertainment industry have towards scientology, as if these followers were Nazis, Westboro Baptists, or Klan-biker rapists who eat kittens. How quickly word travels among commentators looking to fill column space that After Earth not only bears the imprint of Scientology but serves as an outright propaganda tool for the church.

Rich Juzwiak at Gawker, who embraces Scientology the way The Hulk embraces Buddhism, says no, and he has expert opinion on the subject. It’s rather illuminating, even as the author gets off numerous jabs at Scientology in the process, powerful punches they might be on the surface but these only have the same effects as those Kirk delivered to Khan’s head. His colleague Caity Weaver made a big stink about a New York Magazine article that has Will Smith ranting about patterns. (I think Caity was just trying a little too hard to stir up the crazy she’s hoping to find in the Smiths.) Here’s Juzwiak’s opening salvo:

““Don’t feel what you feel,” is an idiotic, unreasonable moral for a film, and it sounds a lot like Scientology babble. Given Will Smith’s long-rumored association with the cult (the school he funded and staffed with his wife, New Village Leadership Academy, uses Scientology’s “Study Tech” teaching method, for example) and the sci-fi, post-apocalyptic format of the film, After Earth has been widely regarded as aBattlefield Earth-like effort at sub rosa Scientology marketing…

To put this theory to the test, I contacted Dave Touretzky, a research professor at Carnegie Mellon and longtime Scientology gadfly and expert. Touretzky’s credentials as a foe of Scientology are impeccable, and he would jump at the opportunity to discredit a propaganda vehicle. “I don’t see any Scientology content AT ALL in this movie,” he told me in an email:

“The themes of the movie appear to be standard adventure fare: physical courage, coming of age, father/son relationships, battling danger to prove oneself and earn a father’s respect. These are not Scientology themes. There is no mention of evil psychiatrists, mind control, engrams, etc.”